Final Ideation for Protest Project

I considered doing a drawing of the scene from the day at the middle school, but I found the actual origami objects to be much more meaningful. I have decided to photograph a lily made of a newspaper article about walkouts. This lily will represent the teacher. I will paint over the photograph the quote in which the teacher announced: "Today is a bad day for teachers." I will photograph a small, pure, and white lily to represent the student. I will paint, "What do you mean? It's a great day!" over the top of the photograph. These two pieces will create a diptych. The two lilies will appear as if they are interacting with one another through dialogue and the way in which they will be positioned in the photographs.

Further Ideation for Protest Project

I am currently doing my pre-student teaching hours at a middle school nearby. I had an extremely valuable experience the other day while I was assisting. That particular day, there had been a lot going on with news on the budget bill, the risk of layoffs, and walkouts. The events that took place in the classroom that day will be the basis of my protest project. I keep a teaching blog, as well as an art blog, and below I have pasted a section I wrote that particular day: There was a lot of tension in the classroom today. The teacher told the students that she wasn't having the best day, and that it was a bad day for teachers. One of the students replied, "What do you mean? It's a great day!" I really appreciated his optimism. This interaction between the student and the teacher was very powerful to me. The negativity of the teacher completely interfered with the students' learning that day. The power that the teacher had in bringing her entire classroom down just amazed me. But, the impact that particular pure and innocent student made was beyond his years. He has no idea how impactful his statement was. On this day, the students were making origami lilies. The juxtaposition of the lilies and the negativity in the classroom was very contradicting. The lily symbolizes devotion, innocence, purity, and youth. A teacher should be devoted to his/her students. I thought that this occurrence had a lot to do with the meaning behind walkouts. A teacher could be symbolized as a lily, in the sense that they are devoted, maternal figures, but this concept is completely backwards when teachers decide to walk out. While the educator may be corrupt, the student remains pure and innocent. They remain devoted to learning while they are in school.

Protest Project Beginnings

For the protest project, there is a particular problem I have with the way in which educators are reacting against Walker. It has been popularized to walk-out of schools in protest of the budget bill. In my opinion, this is completely unacceptable. Teachers walking out on their students. What a thought. If they are such strong advocates for education, what makes them think that it would be at all appropriate for them to abandon what they stand for? This concept is just completely backwards to me. I understand that people are angry and feel that they deserve their rights. I do not understand how they think that walking out on innocent students will solve anything. By walking out, teachers are targeting the wrong group of people. These walk-outs have an extremely negative impact on students. There are many other constructive ways to prove a point.

I have heard stories of teachers walking out, but bringing their students with. This is also so very wrong, in my opinion. If they are younger students, they do not understand what they are taking part in. These students are left without a choice, but to follow their teacher's directions. I can only imagine how furious some parents must be. In schools that have older students attending, they may feel pressured to partake in the walk-outs. It is possible that these students are also being fed very biased information. This is an abuse of power.

The inappropriate actions of educators will be the driving force behind my project.